To be gobsmacked that an interviewee openly told dh that he had looked at our accounts…

[ChampagneWorries]

On companies house?

Dh did an interview today via zoom and the interviewee openly told him that they had looked at our company accounts on companies house to see if we were a healthy company!

Our dividends are on there and I'm really shocked that he basically admitted to being so nosey.

I know they are public information (which i disagree with) but they do show the company income, how much cash was in the bank and our salary etc.

Dh wants to offer him the job as he had some good qualities, but this has really put me off him.

I know people do look at peoples companies on the companies house, but you don't bloody tell them surely?!

Would you still offer him the job?

Publicly!

I’am very embarrassed about my salary!!!!! But again this is due to my family and upbringing etc.

I think you just have to get over it OP. I can understand why it feels uncomfortable. Maybe it helps to think about jobs where people get paid a set salary, e.g a nurse at a certain band gets a certain amount (with a range between points of the band), so if people cared they could look that up? That's kind of the same in terms of salary not being secret.

Quite irrelevant but my favourite thing is looking at the company accounts for the company I work for each year and noting how much the greedy bastards took in dividends when "we can't afford bonuses" when what they mean is "we can't afford to pay ourselves £500k and pay you all £500"

You’re clearly not that bloody embarrassed about people knowing your salary if you’ve named yourself “Champagne Worries”...

My user name regards to people feeling like whatever i have to worry about is nothing compared to what they have to worry about. This is in real life, not on here.

I agree that you are being strange .
I worked for a while in a niche part of our sector, it was a standard interview question to ask candidates what they knew about us. We were "findable" with a bit of effort but surprising how many blank looks we got. Your candidate has done a good amount of due diligence on you, and has been open about it. I would be shocked if anyone had not checked you out. As the interviwer I would be disappointed if he hadn't.
It is an interview- an opportunity for you both to look at each other. After all what if he left a good job to come to you and you were on the verge of bankruptcy ? TBH, he's probably too good for you.

What a strange attitude. I ALWAYS look up companies I'm going to deal with. That is what it is there for

I think it shows he'd be a good employee. YABVU.

@Weirdlynormal - Me too. I look up every company that I do business with and will research every company I have an interview with.

I’d be gobsmacked if he hadn’t looked the company up. Just due diligence as part of researching a potential employer.

@LondonJax I think a couple of the builders we were thinking of dealing with were shocked when I told them their accounts were what discounted them. (I even sent the accounts of the company we chose to use to my friend who is a partner at EY,... but that was possibly a bit OTT!)

This is why, OP, I try to avoid working for the owners of SMEs. IMHO they're all a bit odd in someway, and you'd think every penny spent was coming right out of their pocket there and then.

So you’re embarrassed that he knows that you are earning a lot to find out you do little or nothing for.

Well you need to live with it because he’s entitled to know and entitled to think what he wants of it. He won’t be entitled to comment about it though.

Ultimately, it’s up to him. If he feels he is paid well for what he does, nothing else is his business. If he’s underpaid, that’s another issue but he is free to look for another job.

Excellent candidate if he did this. It’s one hundred percent the right thing to do. The fact you’ve personal issues should not interfere with thr running of the company and selecting the right candidate. If you cannot look at it logically and your emotion gets in the way you cannot be involved in hiring decisions.

It’s really important people do research like this.

A friend of mine quit her job and went to work for a small company in a much more senior role. No one else interviewed or applied. Which was weird, and she was offered the role immediately. She was all excited.

I checked their financials and it was clear they were in a proper mess and likely the bank had requested she was put in as a way to continue the loans. They basically ignored her from the start and a month later they went bust. She ignored my warnings and was totally naive to it.

Checking the financials is absolutely what all candidates should do.

Absolutely I’d do this. Sadly where I am (Channel Islands) it’s not free info.

When I recruit I check put people online profiles (admittedly not financial into) but if it’s public info it’s out there. So why not.

I find it a bit shocking you’ve got as far as running a company with a £1m turnover and this is the first time you’ve looked at the accounts. You know as directors you are responsible for their contents right? I’m assuming you pay an accountant but if they are wrong it’s on your head so I would start taking an interest!

Of course, my son was made redundant during the pandemic and has had a few interviews arranged over the next fortnight. A couple of the companies he is going for interviews with sound great places to work but they are teetering on the edge financially and i would imagine he would say no if he gets an offer from either of them.
I've done the same myself, in the care sector a lot of companies have gone down and the staff tend to get re-hired on poorer terms if anone re-starts the service.

In the nicest way possible you are being ridiculous. This is an employee that’s done their homework and actually to me it’s a good sign they’ve looked at your accounts. You do your due diligence on them before you accept them as an employee why shouldn’t they do the same? I doubt it would be to look at your salaries either as other PP’s have said it will be to understand if you’re a financially viable company.

Its not the first time i’ve know my salary was on there!

Jesus christ!

I queried about the detail in the accounts that the accountant was publicly displaying and he said there was nothing he could do about that. This was about 4 years ago though. I will be ringing him today about abbreviated accounts.

What a bizarre outlook OP. You're a businesswoman!!! I'd be worried if a candidate didn't look at all available information about a company before an interview.

Of course it's reasonable. You want to make sure, as far as you can tell from the accounts, that the business is solvent and is likely to pay you your salary each month, and is a good prospect for the future.

Interviews are a two-way street, or at least should be if the candidate is worth their salt.

In fact, because you have even asked this question, OP, it would be a no from me, you sound very unprofessional. I've turned down second interviews several times as I thought the person interviewing me was a numpty.

YoP just doesn’t want people to see how much she is paying herself. She says it’s embarrassing. It’s not hard to deduct why it might be.

It's sounds as though you're taking out your own grievances about being unhappy that this information has to be legally made public on an innocent person.

It's not his fault you don't like people knowing how your doing financially within your business.

Tbh you sound very insecure and anal retentive.

There's a term "cutting off your nose to spite your face";your husband wants to hire what could be a great asset to your business and you don't because he's "offended" you by daring to look up public information.

I hope he gets a better job offer elsewhere.

Haven’t RTFT but just to note that lots of people have their salaries publicly available online - NHS staff, civil service... my DH is a GP, GP surgeries are legally obliged to publish on their website the salaries of their doctors...

I think you need to recognise you are letting your pwn personal mental health issues get in the way here and failing to look at this logically.

He has done the right thing. In fact it’s good he did it and said, it’s a huge plus in his favour.

The fact you take issues with public accounts and habe personal problems with it doesn’t mean he is in some way wrong. He was not to know about your issues. He would have assumed a professionally run business where this was to be commended.